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What is the history of Music Therapy as a healthcare profession?

The idea of music as a healing influence that could affect health and behavior is as old
as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century discipline began in the West
after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both
amateur and professional, went to veterans' hospitals to play for the thousands of
veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients'
notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to
request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals. It was soon evident that the hospital
musicians needed some prior training before entering the facility and so the demand
grew for a college curriculum.

The world's first music therapy degree program was founded at Michigan State
University, USA, in 1944. Music therapy did not emerge as an organized profession
until 1950 with the establishment of the National Association for Music Therapy and,
thereafter, the formation of the American Association for Music Therapy in 1971. The
two associations merged in 1998 to form the American Music Therapy Association
(AMTA).